RealGM

Narf, a solid poster at Rube Chat, pointed out that unlike most contracts we see with a player option, Songalia's $4.8 mil in 2010-11 is an Early Termination Offer.

Now, I've always brushed this aside, saying "Well it doesn't matter. Songalia may be able to get a $2.5 mil contract in free agency as a decent vet bench big, so he obviously won't exercise his option to make $4.8!"

However, I'm curious now whether the Collective Bargaining Agreement allows us to provide financial incentive to get him to choose to opt out? Suppose Glen Taylor offered him $3.5 mil in cash next season to terminate his contract .. I'd have to imagine he'd say "yes."

Before I go research whether this is legal, and whether the $3.5 would count against our cap (I'm guessing "no"), anyone looked at this issue already, or have comments?

I'm guessing "yes" it would. it seems to me that the $3.5 million would be considered a buyout amount and count towards the cap. An option in and of itself is a contract. We would be buying out his option and therefore under league rules, I would assume that counts against the cap. Still, that's definitely something we could consider to get an extra million or two in cap room next year.

here is a simple way

play him as our starting PF all season long, log him 40 minutes a game and run every offense through him, by the end of the season he probably can get 18ppg, 7rpg, 3apg, then, he would worth more than his ETO and he will just opt out to get a new contract

problem solved, we din lose anything, we din plan to achieve much next season anywayz

The only real difference between a player option and an ETO is that in an ETO the player has the choice to opt out of the last year of the contract, and with a player option the player has the choice to opt in to the last year of the contract. So, pretty much just semantics. So it would really make no difference for your scenario. As for whether that's legal, no, you can't pay a guy to opt out. I supposed we could buy out his contract. Or try to. And that would certainly count against the cap.

casey wrote:The only real difference between a player option and an ETO is that in an ETO the player has the choice to opt out of the last year of the contract, and with a player option the player has the choice to opt in to the last year of the contract. So, pretty much just semantics.

I'm not so sure that isn't a difference, but it may just be me trying to get my head around a perceived (not real) difference.

Songalia with an ETO, can opt out of his contract in June of 2010, and there is no contract in 2010-11.

For a player option, the player opts in, but in July of 2010, when the 2010-11 season starts.

Perhaps you're right though .. if a player has a PO for the next year, I believe teams buy them out assuming that they'll exercise that option. Maybe a buy-out for the ETO would be classified the same way.

It seems different to me so far, because the player is choosing to end the contract sooner .. emphasis on "end."

I haven't had any luck finding anything specifically addressing buy outs with ETO's, and it may just be that its unnecessary.

The closest thing I could find in Coon's FAQ is this:

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q59
"There is one other type of buyout described in the CBA. When a contract contains an option year, a buyout amount for the option year can be written into the contract. The buyout amount may be up to 50% of the salary for the option year, and is payable with the exercise of an ETO or the non-exercise of an option."

It doesn't make sense that a team could pay a guy more now to not have to pay him later. Any money paid to him is counted in the cap. You can't just decide to pay him an extra $3Mil this year to not have to pay him anything next year.